


Hide and Seek

by jbn42



Series: Ideas Are Like Stars [4]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Contemplative Rey, F/M, Father-Daughter Relationship, Fluff, Force Ghosts, She can’t find Kes, Unrepentant Fluff, Yavin 4
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-31
Updated: 2020-05-31
Packaged: 2021-03-02 17:35:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,058
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24470659
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jbn42/pseuds/jbn42
Summary: Rey and Kes have a game where they try to sneak up on each other, but sometimes Rey takes a time-out. This comes somewhere between “Ideas Are Like Stars” and “In a Corner of Nature.”
Relationships: Poe Dameron/Rey
Series: Ideas Are Like Stars [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1578223
Comments: 2
Kudos: 31





	Hide and Seek

**Author's Note:**

> Author’s Note: This isn’t chronological – comes between “Ideas Are Like Stars” and “In a Corner of Nature.” It’s a little one shot about something I mentioned in “In a Corner of Nature.” There Be Fluff Here, my friends.
> 
> Disclaimer per usual – I do not own Star Wars or any aspect of the SW universe; just a fan with an idea. No profit here, just fun for me.

Cutting through the woods along the edge of the koyo fields, Rey moves silently, tapping into the Force, trying to feel the signatures of all of the life forms around her and then sort them out. It’s hard here. There is life everywhere – whisper birds, beetles, woolamanders – more than she can even identify. And she’s just trying to find one, to single out one particular ever-so-faint signature. 

Kes Dameron confounds her. Poe burns bright gold in the Force. She can find him nearly anywhere. In the months she’s been here, long enough for it to shift from the dry season to the wet season, she’s been trying to sneak up on Kes before Kes can sneak up on her. It’s a game they’ve been playing, and she is losing. Badly. She’s getting incredibly frustrated, not with Kes, but with herself. 

She’s convinced it’s because her focus isn’t good enough. She spends time meditating under the Force tree every day, the events from Exegol still haunting her. It’s starting to fade, though. The first night she was here with Poe, a fierce nightmare had shaken her badly. He’d just wrapped his arms tight around her, pulling her close and singing her a soft song in a language she didn’t know (he’d told her later that it was Yavinese). 

Since then, they’ve come to the realization that they have a faint connection through the Force. They’d realized that there were a few events that tied them together. He’d told her about Kylo’s torture of him, and she’d told him that both Kylo and Snoke did it to her, too. She’d also told him about Ben’s return, and even that she’d kissed him, an act of gratitude and extreme emotion. She wanted him to understand and also be prepared if Ben pops up – their Dyad connection makes her think that’s possible.

She pauses and scales a large Massassi tree. She needs a break, and the one thing she has over Kes is her ability to compel one by climbing high in the tree canopy. He may be good at a lot of things, but he says, self-deprecatingly, that he wants his feet firmly on the ground. Rey settles on a big branch high up, her presence hidden by the thick canopy of leaves and branches. She thinks for a moment about Kes and Poe, and she wishes, not for the first time, that she could meet Shara Bey, even in the Force. 

She’d said as much to Luke when he showed up one day, and Luke had smiled sadly and said, “Kid, Shara was highly Force sensitive, but she wasn’t a Jedi – she had no desire to be. All she wanted was to fly. She and her son were cut from the same cloth. But I can tell you that the edges of Poe, the loyalty and sense of honor, the warmth, that’s Kes. Kes is straightforward. You’ll always know where you stand with him, but once you’re one of his, you’re his forever.”

She’s talked a lot with Luke, and she’s also talked with Leia and met Yoda and Obi-Wan, the latter being one of her favorites to talk to. He is somehow less burdened than Luke and the others, and he teases her mercilessly, a sparkle in his eye which reminds her of Poe. 

She smiles and hugs her arms around herself at the thought of Poe. He has surprised her so much the last few months. They’d fought almost constantly on Ajan Kloss. His impulsiveness, his tendency to see things in black and white, his willingness to voice his frustration and fears, they were things that had made her hesitant when she decided to come here. It had been clear to her when she took the time to find the right place to go that this was it. She’d been able to almost feel his signature burning across the damned galaxy from Yavin to Tatooine.

As she’d flown here in Red 5, she’d really thought about him, though. She’d thought about his devotion to Leia, Finn, BB-8, and even her. She’d remembered his devotion to his squadron, she’d remembered his pain over the loss of Snap and the fact that he’d insisted on telling Snap’s wife, another pilot, Karé, himself. She’d remembered his relieved, tired smile on the Falcon after Crait; how he’d just come with her without asking when she left to find the wayfinder; the way he’d caught her after falling through the sinking field on Pasaana; the way he’d held her hand and then her arm as they’d shared the hug with Finn after Exegol. Poe cares more about people, about equity and kindness, than anyone she’s ever known.

Last month, at his suggestion, they’d even gone to Jakku together to see if any of her things were still in her AT-AT. They’d brought back her little doll, her helmet, and her simulator program. Nothing else was left that she wanted. Poe had hugged her tight to him, tears in his eyes, when she’d shown him her former home, and he’d murmured, “I’m so sorry, Sunshine,” in her ear, clearly troubled that she’d been here alone for so long.

He’s her anchor to this life now. Before, her anchor was waiting for her parents. Then, ever so briefly, it had been Ben. Now, it’s Poe. She knows he kind of has been for a while, maybe since Crait, their nonstop bickering notwithstanding. They’ve barely disagreed at all since she arrived, just one small dust-up over his running away from home and becoming a karking spice runner, of all things.

It had been Kes who’d urged her to cut Poe some slack about that. She still can’t entirely understand why then sixteen-year-old Poe had left here, but she’d heard him out and it made more sense. It’s difficult for her to reconcile the Poe she knows now, experienced and battle-weary, with the notion of a naïve kid who just wanted to fly, just wanted some adventures. She knows she’d be fond of that kid, too, but it’s the Poe-of-today that she needs and loves almost to the point of distraction.

That first night here, he’d held her, and she’d slept well, even with the nightmare. His presence steadies her, grounds her without restraining her. She guesses that he could be Force sensitive if he wanted to – that glowing Force signature tells her that – but he doesn’t really want to. It’s almost as though he has his mother’s abilities with his father’s general disposition. 

They hadn’t progressed to physical intimacy right away outside of occasional chaste kisses and a lot of hugs. She could sense he wanted her to set the pace. Then, at the start of the rainy season, they’d gotten caught in a storm, and they’d ended up sheltering at one of the small cabins nearby that Kes and Shara built years ago for guests. It was simply closer than getting back to their house (she’d stopped referring to it as “Poe’s house” inside of a week, and he’d glowed so bright that it was almost blinding the first time she’d called it home).

That storm had left them drenched and laughing, and for whatever reason, it had also awakened something in her, broken down a barrier in her heart that she hadn’t known was even there. He’d gone first in the shower at her urging, but then she’d said, “Kriff it,” stripped down, and joined him. He’d been stunned, but as he likes to tease her, in a good way. Things progressed very quickly then.

She hears a branch crack below her in the tree, and she tenses, making herself small until she realizes that it’s Poe and that he likely cracked the branch on purpose, to warn her that he’s near. She’d been trying to focus on Kes, but now that she’s paying more attention, she feels warmth and can sense his golden signature. A voice floats up from somewhere on the jungle floor. “Dad? Can you please stop stalking Rey? I need your help with the R2 unit out in the north field.”

Rey furrows her brow. Kes had been silent – how had Poe found him? She frowns, listening close to see if Kes is actually here. In seconds, she hears Kes laugh, and her frown deepens. “I’m not stalking her, Poe. It’s just a game.”

“Dad, it’s driving her crazy. She’s always frustrated when she talks about not being able to find your signature.” Poe sounds amused.

“Kid, you and I both know that I am about as attuned to the Force as a droid is. Or maybe a Porg. In other words, not at all.” Kes sounds equally amused, making her guess that Poe is raking his hand through his hair, the curls flopping around – it’s something that never fails to amuse Kes. “I’ve tried to explain that.”

“All right, Dad. Now, the R2 unit?” Poe sighs.

“I’ll go take care of it. You get her to come down. Come over for dinner this evening. I’m making that stew she loves tonight.” Kes yells, “I know you’re up there somewhere, Little Jedi. Maybe next time – but no more climbing trees. That’s cheating.”

She has to swallow a laugh, and a moment later, Poe calls up to her, “Coast is clear, Sunshine. You can come down.”

Rey scales down out of the canopy, and then she leaps the rest of the way, making Poe flinch. He shakes his head. “That makes my knees hurt just watching it.”

She shrugs. “If I wasn’t using the Force a bit, it would hurt mine, too.” Then she steps up to him, kissing him softly. “And it’s all right, Poe. You don’t have to try to get Dad to stop playing. I think he enjoys it as much as I do.”

“He definitely does.” He brushes some hair back out of her eyes. “He doesn’t get to track much anymore.”

She cocks her head at him. “How did you find Dad? He was quiet – I had no idea where he was.”

Poe laughs. “Sunshine, I was raised by him, too. Pathfinders can track just about anything or anyone, and he started teaching me how when I was little. I can teach you if you want me to.” He holds his hand out to her, and she takes it. He raises them to his mouth, dropping a kiss on the back of hers. “And by the way, all that sketchy stuff I know how to do that Finn thinks I learned running spice?”

“The lightspeed skipping and hot-wiring speeders?” She grins as they start walking towards home. “What about it?” 

He smirks. “I didn’t learn it running spice. Knowing how to do that stuff is what got me in with the crew. They needed a pilot, but I had to prove what I could do. Mom told me about lightspeed skipping when I was a kid. I reconfigured an old simulator a lot like the one you brought back from Jakku – I taught myself. A lot of it is about being able to do the calculations in your head, and to do them really fast. Then it’s about being ready to avoid hitting anything when you pop into a new place.”

“And the hot-wiring of the speeders?” Her grin widens.

“Dad taught me that when I was about ten.” His grin matches hers.

She stops walking, stunned. “What? Why did he know how to do those things?”

He stops too. “That’s his story to tell. Just be sure to ask him about it when I’m there. I want to see him stutter and stumble over his words. It wasn’t his proudest memory.” He’s back to smirking.

Rey can’t help herself. She leans into him, kissing the smirk right off of his face. In moments, he has her backed up against one of the massive tree trunks, and she has one of her legs wrapped around his and both of her hands buried in his hair. His hands roam to anchor tight on her hips, and after a few minutes, he pulls back and presses his forehead to hers. They’re both out of breath, but eventually, she says, “Home now? Bed.”

He snorts. After another moment to control his breathing, he says, “I like the way you think, Sunshine,” as she tows him towards their house, laughing. 


End file.
